"Royal Caribbean International said it would cancel the May 31 sailing of the Grandeur of the Seas in order to make repairs to damage stemming from a fire on the ship Monday morning."

"Guests booked on the canceled sailing will receive a full refund and a future cruise credit worth 50% of the fare paid for the canceled cruise, Royal said. Passengers who booked air through the line will receive a refund; the line will pay for change fees for passengers who booked air separately."

Shayne Parsons of Millersville, whose cabin was directly above the fire, had praise for the firefighting crew, "but as soon as the fire was out, it was as if we didn't exist. We were just a number."

Parsons and about 100 other passengers displaced by water and smoke damage were taken ashore and put up at a hotel.

"At 1 p.m., we checked off the boat and we did not see anyone from Royal Caribbean again until well after 8 p.m. We were on our own with no direction," said Parsons, a Navy contractor, who paid $4,500 for a vacation for two.

On Tuesday, they were hustled from the hotel and told they were to board a 5 p.m. flight home only to find that they were on standby with no departure time.

"Things happen. I'm not upset about the fire at all," Parsons said. "But we've been treated like animals."

Some people cried. Others were visibly shaken. Updates from the crew came every half-hour, but nobody knew how bad things were. When the lifeboats began to descend, the tension rose.

Dodson, a Lutherville resident, and her husband, began to think about abandoning ship.

"I don't think that there was any fear that [the ship was] going down, but there was a fear that we would have to de-board to the lifeboats," Cody Dodson said.

"And then watch the ship burn," Jennifer Dodson added.

Beser said crew members began telling people that nausea pills would be handed out. Some passengers saw stretchers carried past.

Martinez said President and CEO Adam Goldstein — who met with passengers Monday in the Bahamas — would not give interviews Tuesday. "We're just going to focus on getting all of our guests back to Baltimore," she wrote in an email."